Well as soon as I post it I figure it out.. go figure 🙂
In case anyone else is confused here’s what I did and I had no clue going into it.
Use this https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/customizing/customizing-labels-messages-and-urls/ for a reference on what to name your files and where to put them. (.po and .mo files, trust me I did not even know what these were)
Download this editor/compiler here: https://poedit.net/download (it’s free!)
You will need this to create (compile) the .mo file (if you want to know what these files are google it, that’s what I did)
Use the buddypress link above and go to the “Translating with PoEdit” section, it will walk you through how to open the file with Poedit.
(This part “This will open a settings dialog and you will be asked to fill in some details such as project name which we’ll skip. Click on ‘OK’ and you’ll be asked to save your language file.” did not happen for me, it asked me my language and I selected English United States, choose what you desire.)
Now remember in my case I needed to change a few buddypress page titles.
Example: I wanted to change the buddypress title “Groups” to “Chat Rooms” –
While in Poedit with your .po file open, where you need to change it seems to be near the bottom of the file. Scroll down until you see something like this “Site-Wide Activity [component directory title]” (this was the first one for me). These are the buddypress page titles, this is where you can change them.
Click on the title you want to change, my case Groups, below you will see “Source text” this is where “Groups” is showing. In the text area under that you will see “Translation”, this is where I typed “Chat Rooms”, as this is the title I would like it changed to.
When finished Save your .po file. Back to Poedit, click File, select “Compile to MO” , save you .mo file as directed in the buddypress link above.
Follow the rest of the instructions in the link to upload your .po and .mo files.
I hope this helps out others who are new to buddypress! 🙂
